The Esper of Algol: Protector

Odin Tyron, Monster hunter

Why is my brain trying to escape by battering my skull?

Noah opened his eyes. He was in a bed somewhere. Maybe an inn? His face was on fire and head wanted to explode.

Alis was in a chair nearby. Her sunburn had healed. On a small table was a steaming steel pot filled with what Noah could only assume was hot water.

"Hi there," she said.

"What happened?" he asked her as he sat up. "Where are we?"

Odin was in a bed on the opposite side of the room, still out cold. Myau was nowhere to be found.

"We're in Paseo," Alis replied. "Here, drink this. It will help that headache."

She filled a cup with some of the hot water, and poured a healthy amount of a clear, thick liquid in as well.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Monosucramate," she replied. "It's super sweet unless it's diluted."

Noah took the cup and drank it. Indeed, it tasted like a sweet cambric tea. He face stopped hurting so much. "How did we get to Paseo?"

"You know how I've been examining that transer to see if I can replicate it with a spell?"

"Is that what you were doing with it?" Noah asked.

Alis shrugged. "Well, it worked."

He was momentarily speechless. "That's remarkably clever," he told her.

Her sunburn seemed to reappear on her cheeks. "Well, I had to get us out of Sopia after the gas knocked all of you out," she continued.

"You mean that town we saw in the middle of the miasma?"

Alis nodded. "The gas made it look closer to us than it was. Apparently, it covers a five kilometer radius around the town."

His head was already starting to feel better. He considered what the situation must have been. "So," he asked, "there wasn't anyone still alive in the town anyway."

"Oh, no," Alis said. "There were plenty of people. The gas didn't go into the town itself. It just kind of makes it impossible to get to or leave."

Noah gazed at her, head tilted and brows knitted. "Really? I wonder what keeps it out."

"Magic," Alis stated matter-of-fact. "I could feel it buzzing about even before the townspeople told me. Your old friend Tajima holes up in a mountain south of there, and he popped by a few months ago to put up a barrier of sorts when he couldn't get rid of the whole thing."

Yep, sounds like Master Tajima.

At that point, Odin stirred and groaned.

"About time you woke up," she said to him. "I got you a present, but you'll have to drink some of this before you can open it."

"Yeah?" Odin said groggily. He looked around the room and saw Noah. "I'm the last one, huh? How long was I out?"

"Well," Alis explained, "HAPSBY drove us to Sopia in about ten minutes after you passed out, there was about fifteen or twenty minutes while the townsfolk made sure you were all still alive, but since they're cut off from everything they had no sufficient medical supplies to revive everyone, so I used a spell I made up to fly us here two or so hours ago."

"I'm sorry about that whole mess," Odin apologized. Then he noticed the one missing. "Where's Myau?"

"He woke up about an hour ago," Alis reported. "He's... showing a certain shopkeeper the fancy teeth Noah got him."